This invention relates to condensers for steam for driving turbines of fossil fuel power generating plants, and more particularly it is concerned with a method of monitoring the performance of a condenser of the type described and a system suitable for carrying such method into practice.
A method of the prior art for monitoring the performance of a condenser has generally consisted in sensing the operating conditions of the condenser (such as the vacuum in the condenser, inlet and outlet temperatures of the cooling water fed to and discharged from the condenser, discharge pressure of the circulating water pump for feeding cooling water, etc.), and recording the values representing the operating conditions of the condenser so that these values can be monitored individually.
The performance of a condenser is generally judged by the vacuum maintained therein, in view of the need to keep the back pressure of the turbine at a low constant level. Except for the introduction of air into the condenser, the main factor concerned in the reduction in the vacuum in the condenser is a reduction in the cleanness of the cooling water tubes. No method for monitoring the performance of a condenser based on the concept of quantitatively determining the cleanness of the condenser cooling water tubes or the degree of their contamination has yet to be developed.